Lyons: Physician runs afoul of rules again

Some of the people who felt ripped off by a Sarasota doctor before the state took away his license last year still like to contact me.

Usually they are wondering why the heck he still seems to be in business.

I wrote for years about Leonard Rubinstein's various brushes with medical regulators, who repeatedly fined him and put him on probation and sent him to ethics classes, and so on, before the state finally revoked his medical license.

Those who contact me are usually mystified that this patient exploitation specialist is still advertising pretty much the same medical services. How can that be, they ask?

It does look as if losing your license to practice medicine isn't what it used to be, judging by Rubinstein's example. He is still listed as an M.D. in ads that claim he is a vastly respected expert in cosmetic surgery techniques and other not-so-related medical realms.

The ads make no mention of losing his license.

I have not been able to reach the man to ask him about that. Maybe he now has others doing the breast augmentations and liposuction he advertises, while he focuses totally on marketing and wallet reductions, as I predicted he might. But you can't tell that from the ads. And it could be that some patients agree to go out of the country for procedures, to places that don't care that Rubinstein has had his license to practice revoked in both New York and Florida.

But one former patient who just contacted me was delighted to share some non-medical news: Rubinstein was arrested in Orlando on Sept. 21 while trying to board a plane to Brazil.

He was charged with having a handgun in a carry-on bag.

“Serves him right!” the former patient said, among other things I'm not sure I should print.

A federal security agent spotted the gun during the X-ray check.

An Orlando Police report said Rubinstein, 59, told police he forgot the gun was there.

Funny how often supposedly responsible gun owners forget they have a gun with them. It happens about three or four times a month at that airport, about the same or a little more often than at Tampa International. Most of the guns are loaded.

Rubinstein's loaded .380-caliber pistol was the 27th firearm that Orlando airport security agents found this year, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The Transportation Security Administration told me that about two thirds of those caught with guns at the Orlando airport had concealed carry permits. It seems Rubinstein was probably one of those. The part of the report that would say so was blacked out, but those arrested without such a permit normally face an additional charge, a police spokesman said.

Getting concealed-carry permits requires training in such things as knowing where you are not allowed to bring a loaded gun. Airport check-ins are among the most well-known examples.

Rubinstein was released on $250 bond. A lawyer listed as his defense attorney in Orange County court records did not return my call.

By the way, the part of Rubinstein's arrest report form for “business or occupation” was left blank. I only wish that meant he had retired.